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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29202726">Wearing a Fluffy Dress for All the Worst Reasons</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixyfriend/pseuds/phoenixyfriend'>phoenixyfriend</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Blame Tumblr Prompts [43]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Girl Genius (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Arranged Marriage, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, or whatever you want to call the storm cousins, violent friendship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:13:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>745</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29202726</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixyfriend/pseuds/phoenixyfriend</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tarvek has a different solution in mind for getting Violetta out of harm’s way. Time for a crack ship! Kinda.</p><p>---</p><p>Written for the anonymous tumblr prompt:<br/>violetta, "you're not as bad as i thought you'd be."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Violetta Mondarev &amp; Tarvek Sturmvoraus, Violetta Mondarev/Hadrian Greenclaw</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Blame Tumblr Prompts [43]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/243763</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>36</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Wearing a Fluffy Dress for All the Worst Reasons</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Oh hey, a canon where arranged marriages are just a thing that happens anyway! AU from pre-canon.</p><p>Can be found here: https://phoenixyfriend.tumblr.com/post/642076016930603008/</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Violetta is not, has <em>never </em>been, close enough to the main family to get married off for a political favor. She’d have <em>maybe</em> been able to swing getting help from higher-ranked family if she’d wanted to marry up, even for love, backing her bloodline despite her lackluster family name. She’d even had a decent idea of which ranking cousins would have been <em>willing</em> to pull strings of drop names for her. She wasn’t Seffie or Anevka, who at best could only say that they’d be given their pick of princes. She’d always known, in her heart, that she’d have <em>this</em> freedom. For all that her career and life were for others to decide, her heart was her own.</p><p>Or at least, that had been the <em>plan.</em></p><p>“Please calm down.”</p><p>“You’re <em>marrying me off?!”</em> Violetta shrieks. She throws the nearest book at her <em>idiot cousin.</em> “I’m your <em>Smoke Knight,</em> not your <em>broodmare!”</em></p><p>“Not the Aeschylus!” Tarvek yelps, grabbing for the tome. “That’s an <em>antique!”</em></p><p>“Shut up!” Violetta yells. “I just–oh my god, I couldn’t have this <em>one thing? </em>Really?”</p><p>“It’s <em>really</em> advantageous,” Tarvek protests. “Including for you!”</p><p>“I don’t care!”</p><p>—</p><p>Violetta gets married.</p><p>She gets to wear the <em>fluffiest</em> dress possible, Tarvek’s non-apology in every ruffle and bead. She tries to keep her face mostly neutral, because the angrier she looks, the worse this is going to get for <em>everyone,</em> and is relieved that her groom looks… stiff and uncomfortable, but not leering or angry. She’ll probably be able to fight him off if he turns out to be a terrible person, but nobody ever really <em>knows</em> with Mechanicsburgers.</p><p>Blue fire, she’s going to <em>kill</em> Tarvek.</p><p>He can probably tell by the way her hand tightens around his arm, and he twitches in her grip. He’s the one escorting her down the aisle, <em>for some blasted reason,</em> so she gets to dig her nails in and think pleasant thoughts about pulling the stiletto strapped in at her garter and just <em>stabbing.</em></p><p>She doesn’t, but she wants to. She really, really wants to.</p><p>“Dearly beloved–”</p><p>—</p><p>Violetta lets herself fall on the bed, flat on her back and arms thrown above her head, and glares at the ceiling.</p><p>“So,” her new husband–<em>ugh</em>–says. “Er. Do you need help getting out of that?”</p><p>She lifts her head enough to turn her glare on him.</p><p>“It just looks like a lot layers,” he tries. “I… if you want nothing tonight, that’s perfectly fine by me.”</p><p>“Really.”</p><p>“I barely <em>know</em> you beyond your name,” he says. The seat he takes next to her is tentative. He leaves a few inches between them. Smart. “This was all my grandmother’s idea.”</p><p>“Yeah?” Violetta asks, leveraging herself up to sit and be… not level with him, because she’s admittedly very small, but more or less upright. “I got sold off into this mess by my <em>cousin.”</em></p><p>He grimaces. “Start over? As friends?”</p><p>She looks at him suspiciously, and then shrugs and sticks out a hand. It’s not like this can get any worse, right? “Violetta Mondarev. I play the gamba, and I like chocolate.”</p><p>“Hadrian Greenclaw, and… I’m working on a degree at Transylvania Polygnostic,” he offers, taking her hand and shaking. “Mechanical Systems Analysis. I have… no idea whether anyone expects you to come <em>with</em> me when I go back at the start of the semester.”</p><p>“Ugh, <em>probably,”</em> Violetta mutters. “Stupid cousin…”</p><p>“The prince that gave you away?”</p><p>“That’s the one.”</p><p>“Isn’t he in line for…”</p><p>“Finish that sentence and I might be obligated to kill you on the spot,” Violetta recites flatly. She’s not feeling particularly charitable to Tarvek right now, but <em>technically</em> her duties as a Smoke Knight supersede her vows as a bride, especially since there wasn’t any consummation. “You know. Just as a warning.”</p><p>“I’ll take that under advisement,” he mumbles. “I was serious about the dress, do you need help?”</p><p>“No, I’ve got it,” Violetta says, reaching back and untying laces as quickly as she can without letting slip just what level her skills are. Worst of the Smoke Knights is still a <em>Smoke Knight,</em> after all. “You’re not going to try to cop a feel if we share a bed, right?”</p><p>“As long as you don’t try to poison me,” he responds.</p><p>She catches his eye, holds his gaze, and nods. They know where they stand, then.</p><p>“Well,” she says. “You’re not as bad as I thought you’d be.”</p><p>“Small mercies?” He suggests.</p><p>“Seems it.”</p>
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